Questions tagged [science-based]
For questions that require plausible (better than suspension-of-disbelief) answers based on Real World science that are not necessarily constrained to the known limits of Real World science. Contrast with the hard-science, science-fiction and internal-consistency tags. This tag may not be used alone. This tag may not be used with the science-fiction, hard-science, or internal-consistency tags.
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Would isolated populations of humans still be the same species after a million years?
Let's say we drop a few hundred thousand people on several different planets. We'll have intentionally picked the planets to be similar in physical attributes (temperature, gravity, etc.), have ...
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Can a tidally locked planet with two counter-orbit moons exist for at least 100,000 years?
I believe it is true (correct me if I'm wrong) that a planet with a significant moon such as ours cannot be tidally locked. The orbit of the moon would continue the rotation of the planet and must, ...
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Does the inclusion of common non-humanoid alien species make rare humanoid alien species more believable?
In a Sci-Fi setting, if there is a vast amount of non-humanoid intelligent life in the universe, like perhaps 20 or 30 species, would this make 4 or 5 species that look similar to each other, or ...
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On a planet with a 2 atm atmosphere, how would atmospheric pressure affect plant evolution?
Leaving aside the atmospheric composition (let's say there's the same amount of oxygen, despite the higher pressure), would the pressure itself have any effect? Would plants need to be stockier and ...
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Communication between a stationary observer and a spaceship traveling at near lightspeed
I was wondering about the possibilities of communication between a stationary observer and a spaceship traveling at near light-speed(lets say 99.99%). If the observer can send out signals at a certain ...
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How might planet size affect volcanic activity?
I'm working on a project involving the evolution of life on different hypothetical habitable planets. In imagining different atmospheres on planets of different masses, I'm wondering how a planet's ...
- 965
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How should I determine the properties of keels and ether?
I was reading this PDF on the speed of sailing ships, and it occured to me that I need to determine the physics of the flying sailing ships in my world. Being flying sailing ships, there will be no ...
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How many impacts to kill 90% of the human race?
Present day Earth is attacked by a volley of relativistic impactors. Each is designed to hit the surface1 with a yield of 1 gigaton TNT equivalent. They're also poorly aimed. None are destined for any ...
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Are there any good alternatives to firearms for 1920s aircrafts?
Short and simple are there any actually effective alternatives to firearms as the main alternative for WW1-1920s era aircraft including biplanes and airships?
Rules:
1: The weapon must be able to be ...
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Would a star's spectroscopy be stable enough on approach to use it as a navigational reference from a great distance?
NOTE: The offered "duplicate" question IS NOT WHAT I AM ASKING. Alternative methods of navigation ARE NOT ACCEPTABLE as answers. I am specifically asking whether or not a ship traveling in ...
- 117k
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All arsenic not in the ground is magically removed. What effect would that have?
The land of Koyokuni has been depopulated of people and their domesticated animals for many years, and had been sown with ergot spores, venomous insects, large, aggressive venomous birds and even ...
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Help with ocean current details on my terrestrial planet
I'm re-visiting the surface ocean currents on my world and was wondering about a few things. I know Ocean circulation is very complex and hard to say definitively what would happen but I think it's ...
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The miraculous substance of carrangan: can it exist, and what does it change about its planet of origin?
First, this account is a replacement for my old one, Jobah_HigherMind, because I forgot the password after being inactive for four months. But I’m moving away from Algennon questions, at least for now,...
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Engines capable of surviving a highly destructive space battle
Context: It is set 50 000 years from "now" in no-FTL interstellar setting. The idea is that active defences and armor of spacecrafts have obscenely advanced to the point that any projectile ...
- 348
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Human brain as fluidic computing tubes
A human body where, apart for the musculoskeletal and integumentary systems, there is one, and only one, body system formed by vessels, or tubes, that transfer liquids from one place to another.
It's ...
- 433
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Feasibility of “invisible” orbital bombs
The fleet is in orbit around the planet. The enemy is in a similar orbit, and they vastly outnumber the allies. The allies have a plan, ‘invisible’ bombs, incapable of being seen will float in orbit ...
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Practical effects of Torchship-strength Magnetic Nozzles [closed]
In a sci-fi universe with high-end interplanetary torchship technology (think the Expanse), high-speed space travel is normalized, with ships of all sizes regularly traveling between planets on the ...
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When universes collide, how much of an emergency is it?
The world of Pandemonium is a world in another universe where humans may exist, that is gravitationally connected to Earth in our universe. Over the course of history since the big bang, these ...
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What explanations can be used for how a humanoid's body is able to spontaneously combust as a natural part of its early stage decomposition?
Some form of chemical reaction interacting with the digestive system for a start?
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What would cause a large & long lasting regional increase in rainfall?
So after the answers on my last question, I got some very useful information about why the idea in the question wouldn't work. I looked into it more and figured that the best solution to the problem ...
- 3,832
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What could someone do with Hydrokinesis (the ability to control water with your mind)? [closed]
Someone has the ability to manipulate and shape water from any source. They cannot create water from nothing, but they can control it at a molecular level. For example, they can change the properties ...
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Problems with turning a brackish endoheric lake into freshwater by artificially making an outflow?
A nation wants to utilize a large, currently brackish & endoheric body of water for irrigation & drinking. Damming the rivers & moving the water from there isn't considered viable for the ...
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There's no space to construct a runway. Are early planes still useful and promising technology?
My setting exists on a huge vertical cliff with no top or bottom, and currently nearing the end of an steampunk-y industrial revolution, putting its tech level somewhere in the range of 1860s to 1910s....
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Is it reasonable that the people of Pandemonium dislike dogs as pets because of their genetics?
The world of Pandemonium is a world in another universe where humans may exist, that is gravitationally connected to Earth in our universe. Over the course of history since the big bang, these ...
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How would nanobots disassemble something on a molecular level
I've been studying this topic for use in a story I'm working on and I've come across various videos and interviews on the topic, but they all seem mostly concerned with assembly of larger objects.
I ...
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Behavior of narrow straits between oceans
I am trying to build a world that would have two oceans separated by a narrow sea/strait/passage.
Think of Drake's Passage, but bordered by large land masses from both north and south, like the ...
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Uses for a gastric bypass
The world of Pandemonium is a world in another universe where humans may exist, that is gravitationally connected to Earth in our universe. Over the course of history since the big bang, these ...
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Why is "magic" possible in the Elidrian side of reality but not on Earth? [closed]
TL:DR:
"Why is "magic" possible in the Elidrian side of reality but on our terrestrial side of the universe? "
I'm creating a game and attempting to breathe life into a story that
...
user104995
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What would aliens glean from our consumer grade computers? [closed]
David just bought a $1500 grand computer, he put the parts together himself. He was about to play some games on it and aliens just yoinked it to study. Without even looking at David or the biology of ...
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What potentially breathable gas behaves the most like a liquid?
So I've already found that Neon seems to be the highest viscosity gas, at least that I can find. However, I don't feel like simply adding a lot of Neon to the atmosphere of my fictional planet of ...
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What is the minimum complexity of summoned "food" that a person could live long-term on?
This question is inspired by an another question which asked how long a mage could survive on pure water, NaCl salt, and sucrose, which they could summon.
In taking this a step farther, what is the ...
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Is there an evolutionary advantage for 12.5% of my mammalian species Homo genus to have blue-green colorblindness?
In my world, there is a species of human called Homo hematophagus (blood eating human).
Traditionally, these vampires are a cannibalistic race: In war they often drank the blood from their rivals' ...
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What's the search area for a meteorite that lands in the ocean and sinks to the ocean floor?
A meteorite survives entry and lands in the ocean. For various reasons, people would like to recover the core of this meteorite.
Observers of the landing are able to narrow down the location of its ...
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How long could a person survive on nothing but water, salt, and sugar?
Magic System
One of my worlds has a magic system that allows people to produce any element, as well as a small number of molecules. When something is produced using magic, it spawns into existence in ...
- 1,842
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What would happen to a person if their DNA was swapped for someone elses?
If Star Trek transporters actually existed...
Bob and Dave transport down to Earth from their ship. But something goes wrong and their DNA is swapped over! Not their cells as such, just the DNA ...
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Practicality of engine-mediated magic
In another universe in which humans may exist but did not evolve, the laws of physics allow phenomena that we in this universe would call magical, where matter and energy may be moved, transformed and ...
- 55.7k
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Is There Any Reason for a High Fantasy civilization to use Stable Higher-Generation Matter
So, in the process of developing a magic system, I have come up with an ability and I don't know why any mage would want to use it. Basically, some mages can control radioactive decay, and what that ...
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What properties would a sediment found in seawater in very trace amounts need to be useful in Nuclear Fusion?
In my world, there’s a highly energetic sediment called Teaterium that is found in seawater in extremely trace amounts (~7,500 molecules per ~200 milliliters of water). That said, despite its ...
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Feasibility Of An RTEG-Powered Unmanned AFV With 1970s Technology?
The title says most of it. We would be assuming a pretty much unlimited R&D budget, and the vehicle to be remote-controlled or automated.
EDIT/CLARIFICATION: Could an RTEG power an APC-sized ...
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Could earth like planet support a second moon, if it was approximately 1/4 of real moon size?
I would like for my world to have two moons. I think it would look simply stunning at night. Also, I came up with a pretty cool idea for a "God Eye" cult. When the smaller moon would have ...
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Are there any alternative genetic systems which could allow for the development of emergent complexity?
DISCLAIMER: I am an (intensely interested) layman, not a scientist. Please take my summation of the following concepts accordingly.
I'm currently trying to worldbuild a plausible alien species down to ...
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What evolutionary pressures would lead to Canis major?
In my world, there is a species of canid named Canis major, commonly named giant wolves or giant coyotes or giant dogs (the name was based on a famous constellation). They are the world's largest ...
- 5,092
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Efficient ways to keep the moon from receding
Say we decide at some point that we'd like to keep the Moon where it is, stop its recession. What would be some efficient ways to achieve this (in terms of rate of money or energy spent)? The ...
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Is it possible to melt icebergs for water at below the cost of desalination with 1960s/1970s technology?
(i'm going to use dollars for cost because i don't really want to figure out currency conversions for the in world currencies)
In this world people need water, a lot of water. But in areas that don't ...
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How Do I Contain Hydrogen Gas With Pre-Modern Technology?
I finally figured out how my alchemy system works. The problem is, when my characters perform alchemy, they release loads of hydrogen gas. Why? Well, basically, they will take an object and cause ...
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Preexisting wormholes: How to find aliens?
Setting
The future, but not too far. No antimatter and no teleportation. Space travel is relatively reliable, but it's not cheap and it's powered by fusion. Space travel outside of the solar system is ...
- 1,148
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What weaponry would a clockwork Skynet use to take over a fantasy world? [closed]
Milennia ago, on another plane of existence, a genius clockmaker dedicated his life to the creation of a thinking machine. The clockmaker imbued the two noblest ideas he could think of into the ...
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How credible is an extremely lethal virus dying out due to genetic inheritance patterns?
As a preface, let me apologize to knowledgeable people if things I say make them wince, I have no genetics or virology background whatsoever and my science-speak is taken straight from Wikipedia.
The ...
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2
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Potentional ways to exploit track built for very fast & very *very* heavy trains when transitioning to high speed rail?
In this world a nation has built 2 railway networks, a smaller 3'6" gauge network & a heavier 4'8" railway network. The 4'8" network connects most of the major cities & has very ...
- 3,832
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How feasible are nukes as a spotting system in space?
In the semi-realistic space combat I design, the following rock-paper-scissors relation holds:
lasers beat rockets
rockets beat armor
armor beats lasers
The level of technology is not too futuristic:...
- 1,148